Kyle Larson put an exclamation point on his homecoming to Northern California, as the Elk Grove, Calif. native took the checkered flag in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway to earn his third win of the 2024 season. Larson prevailed in a strategy race, using 13-lap fresher tires to run down Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. and take the lead for the final time with nine laps to go.
After a rash of cautions in the first two stages gave way to a long green flag run in the final stage, Larson made his final stop of the day from the lead with 30 laps to go, putting him on offense as he was tasked with running down drivers who pitted far earlier than he did from eighth place. Larson was able to make up the deficit and made his move with nine to go, first following Truex through as he passed Buescher for the lead then taking the top spot for himself when Truex went wide in Turn 4.
Larson would pull away over the closing laps as both Truex and Buescher then went into fuel conservation mode, with Truex running out of fuel on the final lap and Buescher holding on to finish third.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 unofficial results
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #34 - Michael McDowell
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #16 - AJ Allmendinger
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #38 - Todd Gilliland
The victory for Larson ties him for the most wins this season with Denny Hamlin and William Byron, and it comes only five days after he was formally absolved of missing the Coca-Cola 600 due to inclement weather altering his attempt at the Indy 500-co*ke 600 double. Larson was granted a playoff waiver, and he is now firmly back in position for the regular-season championship and much beyond that.
"Once we had to go race and pass those guys, I got a bit nervous. I knew I'd be quick from the get-go, but I thought once the tires would come up to temp that it would even off too much," Larson told Fox Sports. "Thankful that we had enough grip. Thankful too that those guys got racing and Martin never got clear really to where I would get stuck in third. That really saved the race.
"And I thought too once (Truex) got to the lead, I'm like, 'Man, I hope he doesn't have somebody to judge off of here into four and he misses the apex,' and sure enough he did and I had a big run. Just an awesome, awesome racecar. ... Cool to win at home, drink some wine here in a little bit and go celebrate."
Thanks to the 26th win of his Cup career, Larson has retaken the points lead with 10 races to go in the regular-season championship, capitalizing on Denny Hamlin's race lasting just two laps before he blew an engine coming to Lap 3. Larson's win also moves him into a tiebreaker for 32nd on NASCAR's all-time wins list with Hall of Famers Fred Lorenzen and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
California caution country
In two races with NASCAR's Next Gen car, Sonoma's annual Cup date had seen only four cautions in 2022 and just two in the entirety of 2023's race. But with newly-paved asphalt and a new set of barriers lining Turn 11, Sonoma was a different and much more treacherous racetrack, with the yellow flag flying constantly in the first half of the event.
The first two stages of Sunday's race would see eight cautions in total, including a number of multi-car pileups that altered numerous drivers' days. Joey Logano would lead much of the opening part of the race from the pole, but his day would wind up being dramatically altered when he was tagged by a spinning Chase Briscoe at the top of the esses. Then, contact from Erik Jones to Josh Berry would send Berry sliding into the entry to Turn 11 and bowling into a tight pack of cars he had been racing just behind.
That didn't even account for the number of cars that spun or went off-track without drawing a yellow. Gateway winner Austin Cindric was the most notable to make the highlight reel, as he went for a spin in the uphill section of the course entering Turn 2 that saw his car get some airtime and come close to biting and rolling over before thankfully settling down on all four wheels.
The amount of caution flags had a major impact on the flow of the race and subsequently strategies, as by the time things finally settled down and virtually the entire final stage ran under green, the field was put in a position where they could make it to the end on a one-stop strategy. That's what ended up occurring, but exactly when everyone's final stops occurred was largely set up by a combination of when they came to pit road during the opening stages and how much caution laps allowed them to stretch the fuel they had.
In the end, Sunday's race would wind up featuring a high attrition rate as seven drivers failed to finish due to both crashes and mechanical problems. One of those was Chase Briscoe, whose transmission failure was especially undesirable given that he entered Sonoma just below the playoff cut line.
With Martin Truex Jr.'s issues on the final lap bringing the last caution out at the finish, Sunday's race would feature nine cautions in total, tying the track record for most cautions in a single race first set back in 1990.
Last lap mayhem
One week ago at Gateway, the complexion of the race changed dramatically coming to the white flag when race leader Ryan Blaney ran out of fuel, giving the win to Austin Cindric. Kyle Larson was spared such a dramatic turn as he cruised to the checkered flag, but those behind him certainly weren't.
The last lap would see two former Cup champions running inside the top five have their races change for the worse: Kyle Busch was on pace for a fifth or sixth-place finish, but he wound up losing several spots after getting spun by Ross Chastain in Turn 4. Busch recovered to settle into what looked to be a top 10, but his car would sputter out of fuel and he would end up 12th, missing out on valuable points and continuing what's become one of the worst slumps of his career.
However bad Busch had it, Truex ended up having it worse: He would run out of fuel completely on the final lap, going from running second to puttering without power and crawling to a practical stop just short of the finish line. Truex would end up crossing the finish line -- to the delight of the crowd and with several safety trucks behind him ready to assist -- in 27th at less than walking speed.
Race results rundown
- For the very first time, Michael McDowell is a runner-up. McDowell capitalized on Truex running out of fuel on the last lap to earn his first second-place finish ever, giving him his best finish of the 2024 season and the 10th top five of his Cup career. Front Row Motorsports teammate Todd Gilliland, who signed a multi-year contract extension with the team this week, also capitalized on the last lap shakeup to earn a 10th-place finish, his second top 10 of the year.
- In just his fifth Cup start of the season, AJ Allmendinger earned a sixth-place finish to give him three top 10s on the year. Curiously, all of those top 10s are sixth-place finishes, as he matches the result he had in the Daytona 500 and at Circuit of the Americas earlier this year.
- Thanks to a good car and sound strategy, Corey LaJoie was able to snap out of a recent funk and earn an 11th-place finish, just missing out on a top 10 and giving him his first top 15 since Atlanta. Not far behind was Spire Motorsports teammates Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar in 16th and 17th, with Smith's 16th marking one of his best runs of the entire season and making him the highest-finishing rookie on the day.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had an adventure of a day, as he would go for a spin in the esses pileup late in stage 1 and then get nabbed for speeding on his final trip to pit road, relegating him to a 24th-place finish. Stenhouse now has five pit road speeding penalties in total, the most among all Cup drivers this season.
- A pair of V8 Supercars drivers made the trip from Australia to make their Cup Series debuts, but neither proved to be the instant success that fellow V8 star Shane van Gisbergen has been in NASCAR. Will Brown took the wheel of a third car for Richard Childress Racing, but an electrical problem would spoil his maiden run and leave him three laps down in 31st at the finish. Cam Waters' day would be spoiled when he was swept up in the Turn 11 pileup, which damaged his suspension to the point that he was unable to continue in RFK Racing's Stage 60 car and dropped out after 66 laps. Crikey.
Next race
For the first time, the NASCAR Cup Series will make its long-awaited trip to Iowa Speedway for the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on USA.
